Lawyer: British airline plot was just a stunt By JILL LAWLESS, Associated Press Writer
1 minute ago
LONDON - The alleged ringleader of a plot to blow up trans-Atlantic jetliners in mid-air is guilty only of planning a childish stunt to make a political point, his lawyer said Tuesday.
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Attorney Nadine Radford said Abdulla Ahmed Ali, 27, has acknowledged planning to release anti-Western videos and detonate explosives at a high-profile location as part of a campaign to change the British government's policy toward the Muslim world.
"It was childish, it was stupid, but it is not murder," Radford said.
Radford was the first defense counsel to sum up at Woolwich Crown Court in the trial of Ali and seven other British Muslims charged with plotting to blow up at least seven planes with liquid explosives concealed in soft-drink bottles.
Three defendants — Ali, Assad Sarwar, 28 and Tanvir Hussain, 27 — have pleaded guilty to conspiring to cause explosions. All eight defendants deny conspiracy to murder.
Ali told the court they planned to set off a small bomb at a site such as the Houses of Parliament or Heathrow Airport to advertise a propaganda documentary protesting the West's actions in Afghanistan and Iraq. He denied intending to kill anyone.
Radford said the plan "is not murder in an aircraft which they could never get on. It is not murder on the ground, with the deliberate taking of other lives."
"The reality is that there was a childish and stupid plan put together by some deep thinkers as far as politics were concerned as to how you change the foreign policy of this government and as to how you can change people's opinions," she said.
The foiling of the alleged plot in August 2006 sparked major disruption at British airports, with the grounding of hundreds of flights. Airports around the world imposed tough new restrictions, still largely in place, on the amount of liquids and gels passengers can take in their carryon luggage.
Ali, Sarwar, Hussain and two others also have acknowledged conspiring to cause a public nuisance by distributing al Qaida-style videos threatening suicide bomb attacks in Britain. The three remaining defendants deny all charges.
Prosecutors say the airline cell was likely inspired by both the Sept. 11 attacks and the July 2005 London transit bombings, although they do not allege the men had direct links to al-Qaida.
Prosecution lawyer Peter Wright told the court that police found a computer memory stick in Ali's pocket with details of flights from London's Heathrow Airport to Chicago, New York, Boston, Denver, Miami and Montreal.
Prosecutors also say the men had stockpiled enough hydrogen peroxide to create 20 liquid bombs, although they did not create any viable explosives, and no date had been chosen for the attacks.
The jury in the trial, which began in April, is expected to begin considering its verdi
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